Border sustainer system for gas discharge panel

ABSTRACT

2. MEANS FOR ESTABLISHING A SECOND AND A THIRD DIRECT CURRENT VOLTAGE LEVELS, EACH OF SAID SECOND AND THIRD DIRECT CURRENT VOLTAGE LEVELS BEING ABOVE THE VOLTAGE LEVEL OF SAID FIRST DIRECT CURRENT VOLTAGE LEVEL, AND BORDER TIMING CONTROL MEANS FOR CONTROLLING THE TIME OF OCCURANCE OF EACH SAID DIRECT CURRENT VOLTAGE LEVEL. 1. IN GASEOUS DISCHARGE DISPLAY SYSTEM, INCLUDING A PANEL HAVING A ROW-COLUMN CONDUCTOR MATRIX DEFINING A PANEL DISPLAY AREA, AND GENERATOR MEANS SUPPLYING SUSTAINING VOLTAGE TO SAID CONDUCTOR MATRIX, AND MEANS SUPPLYING DISCHARGE MANIPULATING PULSE VOLTAGES TO SAID CONDUCTOR MATRIX, A SET OF ROW BORDER CONDUCTORS, A SET OF COLUMN BORDER CONDUCTORS AND MEANSFOR CONTROLLING BORDER DISCHARGE SITES IN SAID PANELS LOCATED BY SAID BORDER CONDUCTORS. INCLUDING SEPARATE GENERATOR MEANS FOR GENERATING SUSTAINING VOLTAGES FOR EACH SAID ROW AND SAID COLUMN CONDUCTORS SETS, THE IMPROVEMENT IN SAID MEANS FOR CONTROLLING BORDER DISCHARGE SITES WHICH COMPRISES: A DIRECT CURRENT POWER SUPPLY COMMON TO EACH SAID SEPARATE MEANS FOR GENERATING SUSTAINING VOLTAGES AND SAID MEANS FOR SUPPLYING SUSTAINING VOLTAGE TO SAID CONDUCTOR-MATRIX, SAID DIRECT CURRENT POWER SUPPLY INCLUDING 1. MEANS FOR ESTABLISHING A FIRST DIRECT CURRENT VOLTAGE LEVEL APPLIED TO SAID MEANS FOR SUPPLYING SUSTAINING VOLTAGES TO SAID CONDUCTOR MATRIX:

United States Patent 1191 i 1111 3,84 ,905

Leuck et al. [451 .QQ- 22 1 4 BORDER SUSTAINER SYSTEM FOR GAS DISCHARGE PANEL Primary Examiner-Roy Lake Assistant Examiner-Lawrence J. Dahl [75] Inventors i g g agfizfizgg g' Attorney, Agent, or Firm-D0nald Keith Wedding [73] Assignee: Owens-Illinois, Inc Toledo, Ohio [22] Filed: Mar. 9, 1972 ABSTRACT [211 App No 233 277 There is disclosed a border sustainer system for gas discharge panels. The direct current voltage power supply to border sustainer generator is switched for [52] US. Cl. 315/169 TV, 315/169 R turning on the border sites and maintaining the border [51] Int. Cl. H05b 37/00 Sites at slightly high levels A border timing control Field of Search 315H69 169 TV circuit is used to control the direct current voltage levels to the generators. The border turn on sequence [56] References C t may be automatically cycled, in a periodic manner, by

UNITED STATES PATENTS detecting the condition of the border sites or be manu- 3,499,167 3/1970 Baker et al 315/169 R any mmaled' 3,513,327 5/1970 Johnson 315/169 R X 5 Claims 2 Drawing Figures PHOTODETECTOR.

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BORDER SUSTAINER SYSTEM DISCHARGE PANEL The present invention is directed to improvements in border site control systems of gaseous discharge of display panels of the type disclosed in US. Pat. No 3,499,167 issued to Baker, et al. More particularly, the present invention is directed to improvements in the border control system disclosed in copending Miacvecz patent application Ser. No. 21 1,371, filed Dec. 23, 1971, assigned to the same assignee as the instant application, and entitled Improved Border Control System for Gas Discharge Panels, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

In accordance with this invention the direct current voltage power supply supplies a first direct current voltage level to sustainer generations for the conductor matrix in the normal writing area of the panel, a second direct current voltage level which is slightly above the first level and a third level, which third level is sufficient to turn on the border sites, and operate the border sites at a slightly higher voltage level. The direct current voltage power supply to the sustainer generators can be controlled by low level logic signals, manually or by photodector signals.

The above and other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become more apparent when considered with the following specification and accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a gaseous discharge display panel system block diagram incorporating the invention, and

FIG. 2 is a timing and waveform diagram therefor.

The gas discharge panel may be of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,499,167 issued to Baker, et al. and filled with a neon-argon gas mixture (99.9 percent atoms of neon and 0.1 percent atoms of argon) as is disclosed in copending US. patent application Ser. No. 764,577, filed Oct. 2, 1969, by J. Nolan, assigned to the same assignee as the present application. The dielectric coatings of the panel have an overcoat (lead oxide, for example) as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,634,719 issued to Roger E. Ernsthausen. Typically the discharge gap in such panel is between 4 and 6 mils with the gas at a pressure slightly below atmosphere. 1

The row conductor plate 11 carries a row conductor array 13 in the writing or the information display area V and a set row border conductors l4 and 15 at the sides thereof. The column conductor plate 12 is identical, having a column conductor array 16 in the writing or viewing area of the data display area V and a set of column border conductors 17 and 18 respectively. The addressing circuit 20 for the row conductors and 22 for the column conductors, respectively, maybe as disclosed in the copending patent application of Leuck, Ser. No. 3 135,021 filed Apr. 19, 1971, now U.S. Pat. 3,365,400, assigned to the same assignee as the-present application, and, as shown, float upon their respective sustainer generators or sources V and V for these conductors in the panel.

The row border conductor sets 14 and 15 are supplied with border sustaining potentials from row border sustainer generator V and the column border conductor sets 18 and 19 are driven by the column border sustainer generator V -as shown in FIG. 1, there are three border conductors per set on each side.

Panel sustainer generators Vs and V are supplied with normal sustainer direct current voltage level V from integrated circuit regulator V Reg (which in- FOR GAS cludes a voltage controlled differential amplifier) and in turn generates the periodic sustainer potential applied to the panel. Border write and sustainer generators V, and V,,,- are supplied with two levels (AV, and AV,) of direct current potential from integrated circuit regulator AV Reg. It will be particularly noted that the output voltage V,,- of the normal sustainer direct current supply V Reg is used as a reference for the border direct current voltage supply AV Reg. Thus adjustment of the voltage level V also effects adjustment of the border sustainer direct current voltages.

The output voltage of each regulator is controlled by controlling resistance elements at the reference point of the voltage controlled differential amplifier. 1n the case of the V Req output, a resistance element 40, 41 and 42 are connected between the regulator reference point 39 and ground and are shunted by the contacts K, of relay l(,, which, in turn, is controlled by the border timing and control circuit. Resistor 42 is adjustable to permitt setting of the V,,-,,- direct current voltage level to any desired value. When relay K, is non-actuated, the relay contacts K, are closed and the V level is essentially zero.

In like manner, a set of resistances 45, 46, 47 and 48 are connected between the regulator reference point 49. However, it will be noted that relay contacts K of relay K are in shunt with only a portion of these resistors. This effectively establishes the two levels of sustainer generator output, one of which (V +A, is a border firing or writing voltage level and the second of which is a higher than the sustainer level (V +A,- used for sustaining sites in the display area of the panel. (Note that AV, is greater than AV As shown in FIG. 2 when switch S0 is closed the AC power is supplied to the transformer and rectifier which provides the basic voltage levels to the regulators and, at the same time, operating potential for other portions of the system, including, for example, the +5 volt supply to the border and timing control circuit. As relay contacts K are closed, the voltage AV is on but of such a low level (5-10 volts) it does not affect any operations. At time t I the relay contacts K, are opened so the V voltage is applied to all the sustainer generators (VSX, VS), VBX, vgy). At T2 relay Contacts K2 open to cause an increase (V +A,-,) in the direct current voltage the border sustainer generators V and V this high voltage level (about -200 volts writes and turns on the border sites (as is apparent). The corner border sites located by the crossings of the X and Y border conductors corner CBSl, CBS2,CBS3, and CBS4 will have the largest peak to peak sustaining voltage applied. At time t, relay contacts K close, to cause the voltage level from AV Reg to drop to AV, level so the border sustainer generators receive V .+A,- voltage level.

In the event the border sites are not turned on or for some reason go out, conditioning of the panel is affected. In order to restore the border, if the operator sees that the border has gone out he may manually initiate a repeat of the border firing sequence from time t 2 by manually depressing Switch-60. In addition, a pho todetector may be positioned to detect the state (on or off) condition of the border sites the corner border sites at corner CBSl, for example and produce a signal which will cause a repeat of the border start sequence from t Finally, the border timing control may auto- 3 matically cause a Although the invention has been described in its preferred embodiments, it is clear that other embodiments obvious to those skilled in the art may be devised with out departing from the invention as defined in the claims hereof.

We claim:

1. In gaseous discharge display system, including a panel having a row-column conductor matrix defining a panel display area, and generator means supplying sustaining voltage to said conductor matrix, and means supplying discharge manipulating pulse voltages to said conductor matrix, a set of row border conductors, a set of column border conductors and means for controlling border discharge sites in said panels located by said border conductors, including separate generator means for generating sustaining voltages for each said row and said column conductors sets, the improvement in said means for controlling border discharge sites which comprises:

a direct current power supply common to each said separate means for generating sustaining voltages and said means for supplying sustaining voltage to said conductor-matrix, said direct current power supply including 1. means for establishing a first direct current voltage level applied to said means for supplying sustatsats hi same r time 12 taining voltages'to said conductor matrix; T 2. means for establishing a second and a third direct current voltage levels, each of said second and third direct current voltage levels being above the voltage level of said first direct current voltage level; and border timing control means for controlling the time of occurrance of each said direct current voltage level.

2. The invention defined in claim 1 wherein each said second voltage level and said third direct current voltage levels are constituted by voltage increments AV, and AV which are added to said first voltage level.

3. The invention defined in claim 1 including photodetector means for detecting the state of said border sites and producing a signal for causing said border timing control means to control said power supply and apply said third direct current voltage level to said border sustainer generators.

4. The invention defined in claim 3 wherein said photodetector means is positioned to detect the state of the border sites at one corner of said panel.

5. The invention defined in claim 1 including a manually actuated switch means for producing a signal for causing said border timing control means to control said power supply and apply said third direct current voltage level to said border sustainer generators. 

